Galatians Words ~ Word 3: Justified
We have seen so far that Paul is passionate about the gospel
of grace. That gospel message is salvation by grace alone through faith alone
in Christ alone. Today’s word, justified appears first in 2:15-21, as do our
next four words. So, we will be camping in this passage for a while.
Before we dive into our word let’s briefly fill in what has taken
place between the beginning of chapter one, where we found our first two words
in 1:6-7, and the passage we will look at today. That way we will have a full
picture of Galatians as we go.
In 1:11-24, Paul clearly expresses his apostolic calling
from God and the validity of his gospel message. Remember the Judaizers are
trying to subvert both Paul’s authority and his teaching. So, he reminds them
that the gospel he preaches was “received through a revelation of Jesus Christ”
(1:12). He also reminds them of his former way of life as a Pharisee (1:13-14),
but through a divine intervention of grace God revealed the Son to him, transformed his life,
and called him to preach the gospel to the Gentile (1:15-24). He then shares about his earlier journeys and
about how Titus, a Gentile, was not forced to be circumcised, but then some ‘false
brothers’ got upset about their freedom in Christ – i.e., they were not
observing Jewish customs and laws – but Paul did not give in and was
commissioned as a preacher to the Gentiles (2:1-10). Finally, in 2:11-14, Paul
shares about a disagreement he had with the way Peter was openly eating with
Gentiles (this was against Jewish customs) in Antioch until some Jews visited
and Peter separated himself from the Gentiles to save face with the Jews. Paul
called Peter out in front of everyone for his hypocrisy. The New Living
Translation gives us an easy to understand version of what Paul says to Peter:
“When I saw that they were not
following the truth of the gospel message, I said to Peter in front of all the
others, “Since you, a Jew by birth, have discarded the Jewish laws and are
living like a Gentile, why are you now trying to make these Gentiles follow the
Jewish traditions?” Galatians 2:14
So, with this background Paul will
now begin to talk about justification in 2:15-21.
If grace is the heart of Paul’s gospel, then justification is the backbone.
A simple definition of justification
is that one is made righteous and accepted by God. When one is made righteous
in the eyes of God, they are declared not guilty of their sin. God is a holy, just,
and righteous God, and He desires that His people will pattern their lives
after Him, therefore they will live righteous lives. But throughout the history
of the Old Testament God’s people struggled to live as God called them to. By
the time Jesus was born the Pharisees had developed a system of laws (over 600 of
them!), that required one to live by them to be declared a righteous person.
But the burden of trying to follow so many laws to earn God’s favor was too
much for the people to carry. So, imagine the relief that people felt when Paul
began to share the good news that they could be justified with God through
faith in Jesus Christ alone.
In our passage Paul uses the word 'justified', or its synonym 'righteousness', five times. When we see a word used so
many times in a small passage, we know that the author is trying to get a point
across. This is one of the values of marking repeated words in Bible study.
When they are marked, we are more likely to notice a pattern that leads to revealing
a significant biblical truth. Let’s see what Paul tells us with his repeated use
of 'justified'.
In 2:16, Paul says that “a person
is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Christ”. This is
the backbone of the Christian faith. We do not need to work hard to earn God’s
favor. We don’t have to try hard to follow a bunch of laws to prove that we are
good enough for God. God, in His mercy, sent His Son into the world and then
gave His Son up as a sacrifice – an atonement for our sins – and through faith
in the risen work of Christ on the cross we are justified before God. Jesus
paid all our debts! And God now calls those who believe in Jesus Christ debt
free from the penalty of sin – we are now justified before God. Paul continues in
verse 16 that those who know this to be true,
“…have believed in Christ Jesus in
order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because
by works of the law no one will be justified.”
This is the gospel: We believe in Christ
Jesus. Why? In order to be justified before God by faith in Christ. Why not in works of
the law? Because by works of the law no one will be justified. It just doesn’t
work. We will see in chapter 3 what the purpose of the law was and why it did
not serve to justify people.
Justification or justified are not
words that are used often in our modern times. But as Christ-followers it is a
term we should become very familiar with, for in understanding this word and
sharing it’s message of hope and freedom, we can help others become justified
with God as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment